Wealie's World » loved ones

Here is a rose, or two, one for me and one for you x

Ruth Weal — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:59:36 +0000

Heaven Scent - Copyright R.Weal 2007

I’ve always loved roses since I was a little girl and my Nan had a wonderful set of rose bushes outside the front of her house that she was always proud of. Nan’s pride is not surprising as her roses were much admired! She would always let me pick one to take home with me because I loved the scents.

This yellow tea rose is called “Heaven Scent” and I photographed it at the 2007 Bath & West Show which is an annual agricultural show that has become a bit of a tradition to visit with my Dad and when she’s free my sister Shelley! The show always has lots of lovely plants, a beautiful flower tent, oodles of lovely fresh food, loads of animals, competitions and lots of interesting country and craft stalls.

It’s always held at the end of May/beginning of June and there is always at least one stall with the finest Cotswold Strawberries, which are the best in the world and alone are worth the entry fee!!

I had actually bought the same variety of this rose plant for my Nan and helped to plant it in her garden the year before, along with a red rose similar to my second rose picture “Passion” below. These pictures were also one of the first times I took out the Pentax K10D digital SLR camera and started taking my photography seriously.

So, the pictures of “Heaven Scent” and “Passion” therefore evoke happy memories of exploring my skills in photography, spending time with my Dad and sister Shelley and of the fond times gardening with the my beloved grandmother, who I had sadly lost the year previously.

Passion - Copyright R.Weal 2007

Red roses were always my Nan’s favourite and “Passion” had a deep heady scent to it that brought to mind the conversations my Nan and I often had about roses and red ones in particular.

Nan said red roses always reminded her of the ones she had carried in her wedding bouquet. That they were a beautiful symbol of her enduring love that she shared with my Granddad. Nan was admittedly a bit of a romantic, but when you spend over 60 yrs with the same person in your life and still feel in love with them to the end I think you’re entitled to be a romantic!

I decided to buy the rose bush “Passion” that was the subject of this picture and I planted it in my own garden in her memory.

My “Passion” bush is still there today, though sadly a bit overshadowed by a climbing plant that has decided to take over my back yard! Every time I see any rose I always smile at the memories it evokes and the scent transports me back to times when my life seemed simpler and one the most truly inspirational and selflessly loving people graced my life.

Shortly after uploading the picture I added a poem in the flickr description for the picture “Passion”. I was inspired to write the poem after attending Paco Peña’s - A Compás Flamenco show at the Salisbury City Hall as part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival . A Compás was a veritable feast of music, dance, colour and spell binding rhythms that kept me so completely enthralled that it seemed like it had hardly begun before it had ended!

I remember clearly the poem bursting forth in my mind to be written the moment the show was over. The title had exploded into my consciousness as I had watched the commanding performances of the lead male Flamenco dancer and I knew if I didn’t capture the energy and spirit of the moment in the poem I’d always regret it. Unfortunately it was one of the rare occasions when I didn’t have a pen and paper in my handbag. Luckily my good friend Deborah came to the rescue and was quickly on hand ensuring that the poem lived and the energy and passion of the moment was not lost. Hopefully if you read the poem out loud to yourselves you’ll hear the rhythm of the flamenco that drove the words from men that heady evening.

As Flamenco is such a passionate art form, it seemed only right that it should have a passionate picture to compliment it and so another melding of my art forms was born. At the bottom of the post there’s a video clip of Paco Peña and his team performing the A Compás show, maybe you’ll get swept up in the passion just like I did!

May your passions warm you all your days and complacency never darken your way.

Wealie x

IF I MARRY, LET HIM BE A FLAMENCO DANCER

“If I marry”
she said
“Let him be a flamenco dancer
With lithe feet
And graceful passion
I will fall into his embrace
In the gypsy fashion”

“If I marry”
She said
“Let him be a flamenco dancer
For he stole my breath
With the fire in his feet
And my heart’s true rhythm
Is forever linked to a flamenco beat”

“If I marry”
She said
“Let him be a flamenco dancer
For he tore from me my passion in the blink of an eye
And gave me elation on an exhaled sigh
For I gave him my heart, my essence, my soul
And without his flamenco
I will never be whole

“If I marry”
She softly sighed
“Please, let him be a flamenco dancer”

Ruth Weal
16 June 2007 12.18 am
Copyright R.Weal 2007 ©

The first two verses were written after watching the breathtakingly beautiful Paco Peña’s A Compás Flamenco show from the Salisbury International Arts Festival on 01 June 2007.

Remembering Babcia

Ruth Weal — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:04:26 +0000

Will I find you in the light - Copyright R.Weal 2007

Today was my Babcia – my Polish grandmother’s funeral, she was just shy of her 87th birthday when sadly she was taken from her loved ones and friends. Babcia, or Maria as she was known to her friends was a strong woman who went through so much in her early life.

I wasn’t planning to speak at the funeral, but found myself needing to get up and speak about the woman she was to me. At the request of my Auntie Chris I have written up the eulogy below. It sums up my off the cuff speech at the funeral and says everything else that I would have wanted to say of her influence on my life.

Maria Wnek – My Babcia

Today I want to speak about the type of person that Maria Wnek was and what we can all learn and take from the way she lived her life. I never knew her as Maria; to me she was always a grandmother, my Babcia. But I know that she was many things to many people, daughter, sister, cousin, mother, friend and most importantly a lover and devoted wife.

Babcia was a woman of incredible strength and seemingly never ending generosity; she experienced and suffered more in her young life than any one should ever have to. Her indomitable spirit and will to live meant that she survived the terrors of war and her separation from family and friends at a tender age. She had the tremendous courage to leave her home with next to nothing, to forge a new life, in a new land where she would make new friends and have a family, but also face the injustice of prejudice and hate. Yet for all that this woman saw and experienced the harsh realities and cruelties of life, she never ceased to see the good in people.

I remember her most in her kitchen, the consummate cook, preparing enough food to feed the 5,000, even when she just had 5 people for Saturday lunch. Her kitchen table filled with pasta and pastries for pierogi and Chruścik, not to mention the humongous pot of bigos stewing on the stove. The sense memories of all those foods weaves around me, transporting me back to the days when I felt loved, safe and warm and of course well fed in her presence. Her generosity meant that you never went hungry, in fact usually the opposite and there was always a big bag of something to take home with you along with another piece of cut glass crystal or crockery.

My house is full of memories, individual cut glass mementos, beautiful pieces of crystal and a wonderful dinner set that she had commissioned for me when I was just 11! Each item indelible with the memory of the care she took in choosing it for me, the joy it gave her in the giving and the light it lit in her eyes to see my enjoyment of it. Her pride in her homeland and the beautiful craftsmanship of her people shone through her like a lone candle in the darkness. No matter how long she lived in England and how well she made it her home, her heart always belonged to Poland. Babcia’s devotion to ensuring that she did whatever she could do for those friends and loved ones still in Poland was a lesson none of us should forget. I remember numerous trips to markets with her, haggling with the stall holders for the very best deal, buying clothes and goods that every year without fail she took back home to Poland.

I remember her smile, her gentle touch and her infectious giggle, how she would always bring her hand over her heart whenever she laughed or cried, as if her heart was so big, she had to keep her hand there to prevent it from leaping out with the emotion that overtook it. The way she hugged you as if her very life and yours depended upon it. The overwhelming gratitude for every moment you spent in her presence and her amazement at even the smallest gift that you gave her. Her friendship brought succour and warmth to so many; all of her family and friends can honour her, take that friendship freely given and deliver it up to another, bring warmth and peace, generosity and love in her name and she will always walk in you.

Our loss is great, but Babcia was bigger than the life she led, she lives on in each of us, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We carry the legacy of a truly amazing woman in the blood that runs deep within our veins. It is our duty and our great privilege to make immortal the woman that was Maria Wnek, not just through our blood, but in the deep values of generosity and selflessness she gave us and in the lessons of life, strength of spirit and great personal courage that she taught us simply by living her life.

We all have wonderful memories of our experience in her presence and I urge you all, in the cold moments when her loss seems too much to bare, take out your memories, enfold them in your heart and let just the memory of her warmth infuse you and you will no longer feel the cold.

Tread safely Babcia and know that in word and deed, in blood and love, we honour you.

For Maria Wnek – devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, daughter, cousin and friend.